Impulsive Behavior

Campbell and Werry (1986) define impulsivity as "erratic and poorly controlled behavior" (p. 120). Teachers who refer to a student as being impulsive usually conjure up images of students who rarely stop to think before they act, who attempt tasks before they fully understand the directions, who often demonstrate remorse when their actions have led to errors or mishaps, who call out frequently in class (usually with the wrong answer), and who have difficulty organizing their materials.

Kauffman (1989) notes that impulsive behavior is normal in young students, but that as students grow older, most learn alternative responses. Olson and colleagues (Olson, Bates, & Bayles, 1990) point out that 2-year-old students will begin to "inhibit prohibited actions owing to remembered information" (p. 318), but state that "self-regulation does not develop until the 3rd or 4th year of life" (p. 318).

Students who manifest impulsive behavior often get into trouble in social situations such as games and play activities (Melloy, 1990). Because they demonstrate poor impulse control, these students are apt to take their turn before its time, or to respond incorrectly to game stimuli (e.g., questions). Some students who have poor impulse control may respond to teasing, for example, by hitting the person who teases them, They are often sorry for their actions and can discuss what they should have done had they taken time to think about their action. Unfortunately, impulsivity places students at higher risk for smoking (Kollins, McClernon, & Fuemmeler, 2005), illegal drug use (Semple, Zians, Grant, & Patterson, 2005), eating disorders (Peake, Limbert, & Whitehead, 2005), and suicide (Swann, Dougherty, Pazzaglia, Pham, Steinberg, & Moeller, 2005).

They also found that among impulsive children, boys had higher scores for sensation seeking and girls for urgency. Assessment of impulsivity usually involves the use of behavioral checklists, behavior ratings, mazes, match-to-sample tasks, and behavioral observations (Olson et al., 1990; Shafrir & Pascual-Leone, 1990; Vitiello, Stoft Atkins, & Mahoney, 1990).

Common Causes and Antecedents of lmpulsive Behavior

Multiple Factors

As is the case for so many attention and activity behaviors, no one actually knows what causes impulsivity (Campbell & Werry, 1986; Kauffman, 2005). Impulsivity is most likely related to the same multiple factors discussed in the prior sections on attentiveness and hyperactivity, including childhood temperament, family environment, gender, and parental characteristics (Leve, Kim, & Pears, 2005).

Failure to Self-Monitor

Shafrir and Pascual-Leone (1990) conducted a study with 378 students between 9 and 12 years of age to determine the effect of attention to errors on academic tasks and the relationship to reflective/impulsive behavior. Shafrir and Pascual-Leone administered a number of measures, including mazes and match-to-sample tasks, to determine response behavior, and tests of academic achievement to evaluate arithmetic abilities. They report that students who completed tasks quickly and accurately tended to take time to check their answers. If an error occurred, they took time to correct the error and used the information learned in correction of the error to assist them in completing the rest of the task. This resulted in fewer errors overall and completion of the task in a more timely fashion. They call these students post failure reflective (p,385).

In comparison, students who are referred to as post failure impulsive (Shafrir & Pascual-Leone, 1990, p. 385) were found to complete tasks slowly and inaccurately. These students plodded through the task without checking answers for correctness.

They simply went on to the next problem with no reference to previously completed tasks. Shafrir and Pascual-Leone conclude that the lack of post failure reflection by this group led to more errors because they did not learn from their previous errors. The implications of the results of this study are that students possess some type of "reflection/impulsivity cognitive style" (p. 386), which was first proposed by Kagan (see Kagan, Pearson, & Welch, 1966). Also, students who appear to be taking their time (slow thinkers) in actuality make more errors than the students who complete the tasks quickly (reflective thinkers).

Parent-Child Interactions

Olson and his colleagues (1990) attempted to assess parent-child interactions through behavioral observation to determine if parental interaction style was a predictor of impulsive behavior. According to Olson et al., the purpose of their study was to "identify the relative contributions of different parent-student interaction antecedents to students' later self-regulatory abilities" (p. 320). This longitudinal study involved 79 mother-child dyads. Their findings indicate that "responsive, sensitive, and cognitively enriching mother-child interactions are important precursors of childhood impulse control" (p. 332). Children, especially boys, were more likely to develop impulsivity if their mothers manifested punitive and inconsistent behavior management styles.

Interventions for Impulsive Behavior

Teach Waiting and Self-Control Skills

Impulsivity may be decreased by teaching students appropriate waiting behaviors, and by a reinforcement plan for appropriate responding behavior. For example, after an assignment has been given, a teacher may teach a student to place her hands on her desk, establish eye contact with the teacher, and listen for directions. The teacher should praise the student for demonstrating these waiting behaviors.

Students who manifest impulsive behavior will benefit from training in social skills such as self-control. At the same time, students may be taught relaxation techniques. Reinforcement will increase the possibility that a student will demonstrate behaviors that are alternatives to impulsivity. The student just described learned social skills through direct instruction and reinforcement for use of the skills to replace impulsive behavior. Schaub (1990) also found that targeting behaviors for intervention that were positive and incompatible with undesirable behaviors was effective with students who demonstrated impulsive behavior. Bornas, Servera, and Llabres (1997) suggest that teachers use computer software to assist students in preventing impulsivity. The authors describe several software products that are effective in preventing impulsivity through instruction in problem solving and self-regulation

Give Smaller and Shorter Tasks One at a Time

A student who hurries through an assignment without stopping to read the directions or to check for errors could be given smaller amounts of a task to accomplish at one time, rather than the whole task at once. This would give the student a smaller chunk of the problem to deal with and more opportunities for reinforcement since the student would be more likely to solve the problem correctly.

Sometimes, a student considered impulsive can handle solving only one problem at a time. In this case, the student should be allowed to solve the problem and receive feedback immediately. As the student becomes more confident and is able to pace him- or herself more efficiently, then he or she may be able to handle larger and larger portions of projects and assignments.